server/pod/books.pod

=encoding utf8

=begin comment

This is the source for some of the books in crossfire, at least, it should become one.

Authors:
Gorlin <gorlin@freibier.htu.tuwien.ac.at>
Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>
Marc Lehmann <crossfire@schmorp.de>
The Crossfire Wiki

Each =head1 should become its own book.
   
=end comment


=head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume I

In the beginning the land was barren. No life yet moved upon the large
continents and islands that lay empty between the seas. In the seas,
nothing moved as well. The world itself held its breath while the Creator
rested. Then, a spirit from outside, serving the Most High, entered the
world, and she saw a place yet empty of life. So she began to create grass
to cover the face of the earth, and trees and other plants. Other spirits
from outside watched, and agreed that Gaea had wrought wonders upon the
devoid place. Since she was by far stronger than the others, those lesser
spirits asked her for leave to join in her work. Gaea accepted their
offer, and so the spirits of the Elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth
began their work as Gaea's servants. It can be assumed, that outside the
world, the Creator watched and approved.

In time, the elemental spirits came before Gaea, and beseeched her to
help them create beings able to move of their own free will, living among
the plant world. And Gaea saw that without animals, the green world would
still miss a vital element, so she in turn went before the Creator. What
happened between them noone knows, but soon afterwards living beings began
to populate the land. Fish swam in the seas and rivers, birds flew their
first flights through the air, and other species moved on the land. The
cycle of Nature seemed complete, and Gaea was content.

Already, however, other spirits had noticed what Gaea had done. Dark were
they, and they treasured still the image of the empty world. To them, a
place devoid of life seemed far better, far more perfect, and so they
entered the world to return the world to its past. Sicknesses and
poison began to spread among the animals, that threatened to extinguish
entire species - yeah, indeed several of them might have died during that
time, of which we have next to no information. Bones in the ground seem to
indict that there were large animals which do not exist anymore, and
sadly, we may not meet them evermore. In anger, Gaea named these dark
spirits the Devourers, since they were those who devoured all life, and
she and her Elemental allies fought them back, and tried to heal what they
could.

=head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume II

In that time it also happened, that a great many of the creatures the
Fire Elementals had helped to make were betoken of great madness, and
started to rampage among the other beings. In time Gaea and her allies
found out the truth, that one of the greatest Elementals of Fire, Ruggili,
had turned against them, perhaps on order of the Devourers. Yet, Ruggili
now served neither Devourers nor Gaea, instead he sought to increase his
own power, and spread madness and chaos upon the world, and he became
mightier than any other Elemental in existence.

The other Elemental beings came to Gaea, and spoke, "With both renegade
Ruggili and the Dark Ones to fight, we need others to assist us. Some of
the beings we created are already strong enough to do their part, such as
the unicorn or the sphinx. The strongest of them, however, the dragons,
have switched their support to Ruggili. We need allies, or this world will
become either a place of eternal fire or one of darkness." Gaea was
clearly troubled by this, and again left the world to commune with the
Creator. Shortly afterwards, new, more intelligent races emerged on the
world, among them the dwarves, elves, trolls, goblins, humans, halflings,
lizardman, any many others, and they joined the fight on the side of Gaea
and the Elementals.

During this time, which we now call the Second Age, cultures grew and
were destroyed, races rose to prominence and disappeared again, mighty
magics were found and forgotten. Ruggili#s followers were beaten back at
great cost, and the forces of Gaea could again concentrate on the fight
against the Devourers. The fight went on for a long time, but it seemed
that the Nature Goddess was able to reform the world into a place of Life.
The mortal races assisting her had become weary of the fight, however, and
spoke to her thus: "The fight has clearly been won, the death spirits and
the Fire God are in retreat. We wish to fight no more, but to settle down
in peace. Though we still respect you and always will, we can give you our
support no longer." Gaea accepted in silence, even though she knew that
this meant that the war would not have a definite ending. Neither the
Devourers nor Ruggili would be defeated be her alone.

The Devourers and Ruggili watched the retreat of the mortals, the
Devourers planning to attack and destroy them now that Gaea was not near,
and then to use their own dead spirits against the Nature Goddess. Ruggili
instead bided his time, sending down dragons to burn mortal cities and
Devourer strongholds both. The Elementals serving Gaea assisted the
mortals still, and gave some protection to them so that the Devourers
would not destroy them. During this, Third, Age, the mortals segregated
according to their nature. The dwarves moved into the mountains, and with
the help of Earth Elementals began their first kingdoms underneath the
face of the earth. The elves moved into large woods, the lizardmen into
swamps. Wars broke out between some of the races, none however anywhere in
that measure as the Great War of the Second Age.

=head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume III

In the Third Age it also happened, that spirits from the outside, who had
been content to watch until that time, took pity on some of those races.
The goblins, orcs, trolls and giants began to serve a being called Gnarg,
who had promised to raise and protect them. He helped them build up
protection against the many poisons which still plagued the lands, and in
time they began to use poison as a weapon against their enemies. Their
most hated enemies were the dwarves and the elves, who each had been
stronger than them before the coming of Gnarg. Now, stronger than ever
before, they attacked them and sought to utterly destroy them. First they
moved against the elves. They burned down forests and elven cities, until
the being Lythander came to guide the elves and to oppose Gnarg. He sent
confusion to the goblin races, and cursed them to utter stupidity. this
curse is still active even now, there are fewer orcs or goblins who
possess high intuition, intellect or magical affinity then in any other
of the mortal races. During the time the curse was first spoken it was
much worse. The orcs fell down muttering insanely, the giants and trolls
clubbed each other senseless, and the goblins jumped down high cliffs to
escaped the voices in their head. The goblin attack faltered, and all the
goblin races and giantkind returned - after a few accidents and wrong
turns - to their homes. They also immediately stopped their plans to
attack the dwarves. 

The dwarves, however, had other problems. The dragons also claimed the
mountains, and the followers of Ruggili sought out the dwarven cities and
the treasures they offered. The pitiful cries of the dwarves, and the many
deaths among dwarvenkind, roused the spirit being Mostrai, who entered the
world and came to the dwarves. He showed them how to create magical
weapons which might wound even the greatest of dragons, and he also helped
them to withstand the dragons' fire. As was Gnarg to the orcs and goblins,
and as was Lythander to the elves, Mostrai became god to the dwarves,
protected them as they worshipped him for it.

The most numerous of the mortal races had no god of their own, and they
despaired, seeing that others had gods of great power to call upon for
assistance. In their fear of being destroyed, in their anger for being
left out, and their hatred for those who left them alone, they cried out
for help. And in the darkness, someone heard them. Far away, in another
dimension most probably, dwelt beings of great power. Endless torment was
their desire, hatred, fear and anger the ways to their dark hearts, and
fire their most potent weapon. When the humans had cried long enough, the
doorway was opened, and the demon host went through. The demon lord Gorokh
led those who entered the world, and he offered the humans many riches and
great power in exchange for their worship and for sacrifice. many humans
fell, and began to serve the powers of darkness. Others sought redemption,
and a pure spirit called Valriel came to their aid. Others again returned
to the worship of Gaea, hoping that the forces of Life would protect them,
a few humans even went to the goblin, elven and dwarven gods for help.

=head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume IV

As the human worship began to spread out among all the gods and beings of
power who had entered the world, a small group of them who wished not for
the blessings of Nature but the power of the elements as weapons spake to
one of the Elemental Lords following Gaea. And as Ruggili long ago, Sorig
left Gaea's path and accepted the mortal's worship, teaching them the way
of lightning and thunder in return. Other small sects began to emerge, and
then the one things noone had foreseen happened. Some humans began to
worship the powers of Death, who until then never had living followers.
Those poor deranged people believed that in death they would be truly
free, and the Devourers gladly accepted their help. When those humans
died, the most mighty of the Undead were finally created - those who
joined the Devourers of their own free will: the vampires, the spectres
and the liche.

And so the world lies before us today, turmoil and chaos has spread among
the many gods who have entered the world. The fights are numerous, but at
least we can be called lucky that no single faction has power as great as
during the Second Age - for another Great War would probably destroy the
world itself. In the First Age only the spirit being existed, in the
Second Age we mortals served the forces of Life to survive, in the Third
Age we left them and began to worship other Gods. This then is the Fourth
Age, in which we hope the ceaseless fighting and wars will finally end,
and we will be allowed to live in peace. But whose peace will it be, which
gods, which peples will lead and which will follow?

Khalis,
Grand Hierophant,
Servant of Gaea


=head1 History for the Impatient

Written by Maris the Scholar, a student of Khalis whom he opposed much
later in his life.

Gaea created the world. However, for things to thrive, rain is needed
so Sorig came along, and provided the rain and lightning. The lightning
created fire, and so Ruggili was born.

Gaea is the source of all nature and life, without any great need for
followers, as the natural world itself gives her power. She gave life to a
number of sons, all gods of their own.

Her son Mostrai saw a flat and uninteresting world and created massive
mountains and deep dungeons.

Her other son Lythander was bored and created some animals.

Gnarg saw that and created the goblins on the world for some reason we no
longer know.

Lythander, disgusted what the goblins where doing to the beautiful
forests, created the elves and halflings to help protect the forests from
uncontrolled goblin destruction.

Mostrai, seeing what was happening to the forests, decided to take
pre-emptive measures and created the dwarves to live deep within the
mountains he created.

Then Gaea created the humans, to protect and provide balance in the plains
and along the coasts.

With the constant battles for balance, many of these new life forms died.
The gods that created them did originally see the souls that these new
life forms had, but the gods Gorokh and Valriel did. They took the worst
(and best) of these departing souls in order to create creatures for their
own desires.

The souls that neither claimed became the domain of the devourers. What
the god of devourers lacked in the strength of individual souls, he gained
in the sheer number of souls he controlled, and with these he created
wights and vampires to give him even more souls. Some of the powerful
humanoids worshipped him in hopes of eternal life. For some of these,
they gained this eternal life in the form and lichs and demilichs.

The Red Dragons were created by Rugilli because he wanted some worshippers
of his own. It is believed that the other dragons eventually resulted from
those by the constant in-breeding experiments Ruggili made.

Nobody knows where the nearly god-like titans came from. Some scholars
claim they could be descendants of some of the forgotten gods so little i
known about nowadays.


=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Calendrical Introduction

Present Day

We are currently in 8437 Era Khelentari (EK).

=head2 Volume I: The Early Days

Around 350 EK: The Story of the Fourth Mariner is written by an unknown author.

435 EK: Colony of Skorn Founded. It would eventualy become the city of Scorn.

711 EK:

The outpost of Heaven’s Gate is founded.

=head2 Volume II: Second Millenia EK

1223 EK: Ekkis the Drunk leads a disastrous crusade against the Sirens in the southern seas.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume III: Third Millenia EK

2287 EK: Battle of Tered - The Kingdom of the Masts is dismantled by Navar.

2567 EK: Fernast Fergono, exiled from Navar, leads a famous exploration expedition in the south-east seas.

2765 EK: The city of Heaven’s Gate is burned by pirates.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume IV: Fourth Millenia EK

3084-3154 EK: The Artificers' Wars take place in the East.

3154 EK: The High Tide of the Gears: End of the Artificers' Wars; many islands are flooded or disappear forever in the depths of the Eastern Ocean.

3867 EK: Juradiths take the direction of Scorn and create a republic.

3885 EK: Juradiths are expelled from Scorn by revolting citizens. They are vainquished at Battlefield Lake.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume V: Fifth Millenia EK

4127 EK: King Kadriosa IV of Scorn leads a Crusade against the elves of the south-east, who flee the country.

4131 EK: Foundation of the Elven City of Tashkeren-tah at Vkovzerov (Lake Country).

4453 EK: The Elven City of Tashkeren-tah sinks into the largest lake of Lake Country.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume VI: Sixth Millenia EK

5524 EK: The Meteomage Grab of Ledh fails an experiment, making the weather mad for a while, an event remembered as “The Weather Madness”.

Late LVIth Century EK: The Great Schism between the Simplifists led by Mish the Toon and the Stabilists: The Sedition Wars.

5581 EK: Battle of the Glowing Crystal: the Order of the Careful Coders is disbanded.

5598 EK: The Simplifists exile themselves into the Pocket Dimension of Daï-Moh-Nî, “The World With a Future”, in Ancient Daigojij Language.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume VII: Seventh Millenia EK

6356 EK: Butakis settles in Lake Country and starts building the Lake Pump.

6356 EK: The Lake Pump is destroyed by Twak. Lake Country is covered by fog. Butakis is disfigured.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume VIII: Eighth Millenia EK

7124 EK: Harta accidentally creates a Dimensional Grid, connecting the Crossfire Continuum with the Daï-Moh-Nî Dimension.

7563 EK: The tower of Melficef the Red explodes.

=head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis.

=head2 Volume IX: Ninth Millenia EK

8009 EK: Euthville is destroyed.


=head1 Euthville History

The Ruins of Euthville can be found just off the Imperial Highway north of
Scorn.

=head2 The Origins of the City

The Codex Skudensis tells that Euthville was founded by the Euthanasia the
Builder, hence its name.

=head2 Past and Destruction

Ah, Euthville - “City of the Pearl”, in Old Hemdalite, has indeed a
rather sad story!!

If you went there about half a millenia ago, you’d have seen something
very different than the field of haunted ruins it has since become. It
was initially founded by a handful of industrious, clever dwarves, that
had found a mystical way to locate fields of precious Karitta, the famous
metal that is as transparent as a pearl of the North Sea, yet as strong as
the best irons of Navar.

And thus, they found at the location of Euthville a lot of that raw metal,
which quickly made the city one of the richest of all. And for a long
time, it stayed so. The inhabitants of Euthville weren’t interested by
war, work, or anything else too tiresome - they preferred to pay somebody
else to do all of this. And with the advanced technical knowledge bring by
the dwarves, working was less and less an issue for them.

Yet yhey were facing a problem. All their devices, all their machineries,
all their tricks to cheat with nature required energy. Lots of
energy. They relied first on the strength of horses and donkeys, but it
wasn’t enough. Then, they tamed the dangerous Wyverns of Kal-Durandasi,
so that the hot lizards would provide them with the full force of their
steamy breath. But soon, it wasn’t enough. They also used the hidden
power provided by the Faeries of the Tarniska river, building a dam, so
that they could put the invisible horses of water that the sylphids are
rumored to breed in use.

But even so, their hunger for power wasn’t satisfied, and became an
increasing nuisance for them. So, the Commander of Euthville (which was,
more or less, the equivalent to our King at Scorn), finally decided to
send messengers across the whole Continent, calling the world for a
challenge. Whoever would be able to fulfill the needs of Euthvillians of
energy would become the new Commander, thus the ruler of the richest city
ever built since Khelens.

Many answered the call, of course, and many failed. Wind, Sun, Stars, even
dwarven beer were proposed, but nothing seemed to be enough. For years,
wizards tried. And failed.

And then came a boy. He wasn’t a wizard, nor pretended to be one. He was
young, but the story didn’t kept the record of his name, and some now
think it is because he was damned. Who knows? The Boy sat in the middle
of the city, playing with his flute, laughing whenever he saw one of the
demonstrations the powerful wizards and engineers failing again and again.

After several days, the Commander noticed the Boy, and said: “who
are you to laugh, you, who has only a flute ?” “I have only a
flute for sure - but there’s more in my simple pipe than in those
legions of wizards.” “Really ?” said the Commander, half-laughing,
half-curious, “so you think you can solve my challenge ?”

The Boy smiled. “Not only I can, but I shall - and my price will be
quite acceptable to give you the energy you need.” “And that would
be...?” - “A new pipe.” came the reply “That one is becoming
old.” “Agree, you have your chance.”

The Boy then started to play an amused melody. It sounded like an
invitation to a great feast, the opening of a meeting where everybody was
invited. And then came from earth itself sounds of steps, climbing from
the depth. The fountain that stood in the middle of the place crumbled,
leaving a great hole from which flames emerged. But the fire seemed to
dance at the rythm of the music itself.

The Boy then said to the Commander: “As long as you keep playing for
the Demons there, at least 23 hours each day, you’ll get them to make
whatever you need.” And he gave them the score, took a brand new silver
flute, and left, and never was seen again at Euthville.

At first, things seemed fine, and the Commander couldn’t believe his
luck, as a pipe was a feeble price to pay for such a powerful recipe of
prosperity. Who wouldn’t want to tame the Demons themselves? Quickly,
though, it appeared obvious that, for enough demons to be there, that
music needed to be played rather loudly. And if, at first, it sounded
entertaining, joyous, and funny, it quickly grew on the nerves of
many. And especially because it was played 23 hours a day.

Finally, the Commander decided that the city couldn’t stand this
anymore, and ordered that the Demons had to be attracted faraway from the
city. On this fateful day, a whole fanfare left the city, hoping that the
demons would follow, attracted by the music.

And so, they did. One after another, they climbed out of Earth itself, and
walked in the direction of the music, obviously unaware of the hundreds of
buildings they were crushing by their giant footsteps, and the thousands
of inhabitants that they toasted with their dark fire. Seeing that,
even the bravest ones went mad, and ran for their lives, leaving pipes,
clavicelles and harpsichords fall on the ground.

The rest of the story is easy to understand: Demons, free from the magical
music that enslaved them, crushed what remained of the city, in a bloody
fest that they will forever keep in their twisted memories.

The Commander went mad, of course, and it is said that his madness was
so strong that his mind was unable to understand that he was dead. If
you search enough in the ruins of Euthville, you’ll probably encounter
his ghost, as well as those of the many who perished for having believed
that mortals could enslave the hell. Some demons stayed there, obviously
enjoying the area and its newborn ashes that smelled fresh blood and
carnage. Euthville is now, of course, a dangerous, deserted place, and the
richesses that are still sleeping below the ruins of its former palaces
are now guarded by powerful entities of the 9th Circle.

Many said that, if the Enchanted Music could be found, it would open the
gates of many treasures, but because none of the former Euthvillians
survived, and because nobody knows where the Boy went afterwards, those
gates are still closed. I’ve heard that the School of Daemonology was
precisely founded to rediscover that spell. But who am I to claim this to
be true ? I’m only a man of the past that tells stories before a fire,
and the fire is dying, and so has my tale reached the end.


=head1 The Kiritani Pass (from "Euthville Legends")

The "Kiritani Pass" is the part of the map you can see on world_104_114,
between the two random caves and the forest full of hidden
stuff. Nowadays, it is marsh and beach, but centuries ago, it was a
passage for boats sailing from and to Euthville.


=head1 Sannistra (from "Euthville Legends")

The Sannista is a legendary flying boat that was powered by the reaction
of a fire and a water elemental. It was built by the tenth Commander of
Euthville, Farkennis, as a gift for the 18th Birthday of his daughter,
Sannista. That’s the boat that was stolen by Fax when he fled from
Euthville, and that he used to get to Khelens. Giusitta the Verbous then
sailed it back to the Continent, and hid it “somewhere in the mountains
of Euth”.

So I *guess* she would have put it there, although I’m not *sure*. Many
people thought the story was speaking about the mountains just east of the
ruined city, but now that I’ve discovered those two caves, I’d rather
bet on them - it seems more logical.


=head1 The Name of the World

I, Forag the little-known, have invested my lifetime into exploring
the various names of this, our World. In this tome I wrote down all my
knowledge. Be careful with it, else it might overwhelm you, as it did me!

In Khelens and most of its territories, it was named “The Earth”,
while the major western landmass was called “The Continent” while the
eastern landmass was called "the Wilderness".

Fendrakis used “Raxida”, which is also the name they gave to the Fox
Lady, Mother of All Things, deity.

Elves traditionally use “Eänella”, which translates as “The Land of
Green”

Dwarves of Khorolizov use “Herdankaupf”, “Country of the Horses”,
which is a reference to their mythology (see the legend of the Twelve Days
for that)

The Orcish name is “Knâgsh-Ishzeh”, “Rotten Branch”

The people of the Old Wall, used the name “Harinappa”, “Bottom of
the Pit”, to designate the world.

Most people nowadays use the old Khelenti name ("The Earth") or its direct
translation in local languages/idioms.


=head1 Melficef the Red

Melficef was a powerful mage that conducted thaumical studies to
try to store magical energies in an efficient way. He created many
self-recharging rod spells that are still commonly used today, as well as
the thaumic bomb, a device storing a massive amount of mana and releasing
it in a violent explosion - such an explosion actually killed the
unfortunate Melficef himself.


Revision:	1.3
Committed:	Mon Jan 1 16:24:30 2007 UTC (17 years, 4 months ago) by root
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.2:	+39 -0 lines
Log Message:	some more